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Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The crappy photos don't do justice to the looks of this amp.
Look & feel of this amp are superb. Next to this piece of equipment everything else looks shabby.
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I can second that. Pictures just don't justify this beauty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Another thing I want to say here is that I got great service from Trafomatic (Sasa). The original amp took a long time to arrive, but that had mainly to do with Slovenian customs. When it arrived and turned out to be not quite ok (a channel imbalance) Sasa arranged to send another amp right away. He also arranged that I could return my first amp to an address in Holland, saving a lot of hassle and shipping cost. He also answered all my e-mails promptly.
Despite the long waiting I have no complaints about Trafomatic at all.
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His service is great. Sasa answers mails in minutes or hours at maximum. As I already told, he offered to ship the amp through a friend who lives in Austria so there was no need for me to buy from retailers or to pay customs. I got it for 666,- Euro (
) all in all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Sound.
It needs a lot of burn-in. Definitely.
Very preliminary:
MASSIVE sound.
Much bass. (usually one of those things that tighten up with burn-in)
Very forward mids.
Rather shy in the highs (but that may be mainly because of the massive bass and forward midrange).
It hits hard and fast, despite its heavy sound signature.
Soundsatage not very big, even somewhat congested, but that will hopefully open up with burn-in.
Transparency is not it's forte right now. This can also improve enormously with burn-in.
A lot of PRAT. It definitely rocks.
The overall first impression actually reminds me a lot of my L3000.
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Mine was more detailed than my D2 Viper (with OPA627) out of the box but through this 2 weeks of use (I think it had 150 - 200h) it cleared up even more.
I wouldn't call it treble shy... but it's definately not what I would call piercing either but very smooth (tubey?).
Mids are more forward than the D2's mids. Vocals, strings and guitars have a very rich tone and a nice body to them. It fits the GS-1000 perfectly.
The bass has also more punch than I expected but it's also nicely textured. It's neither overpowered nor shy... just what I like.
The soundstage opened and widened a lot when I got the Havana DAC... it was almost like night and day. I think the Havana is also a great fit for the Head One because of this and the details and overall crispness it provides.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kees /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I tried the GS1000 because MONVMENTVM mentioned them, and I can see how they match very well. The mids of the GS1000 benefit a lot by the forwardness of this amp.
I need to give it more time now.
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Thanks for that! It really seems to be a great amp for the GS-1000. There really aren't any piercing highs, mids are more lively and musical and the bass just complements the GS-1k.
Btw. give the impedance knob a try. While the 30 Ohm setting makes the mids just slightly more forward than on the D2, the 100 Ohm setting boosts it quite a lot. It's an overall more powerful and punchy setting. I think it fits great for rock. The 300 Ohm setting makes the exact opposite though being more laid back.
The interesting thing is that this differs from phone to phone. It's probably because it can deliver more current on low Ohm setting, a combination of more current and voltage in 100 Ohm and more of the latter in 300 Ohm setting and that reacts with the impedance of the used phone. Quite a funny thing.
Btw. I also talked with Sasa and he told me that the tubes need at least 200h to sound good.
The Havana DAC probably needs some more burn-in too as I got it just less than a week ago.
At the moment I'm really happy with that hardware. Maybe I'll give the DacMagic and the Woo 6 a try just to be able to compare that stuff to something else and have a reference. I'll keep just one DAC and amp though and right now I think that it won't get much better at a reasonable price than what I have right now.
